Road Trip: New York to Florida on the Cheap
Plan your road-trip route correctly, and you can rent a car for practically nothing. (Photo by Getty Images. Design by Lauren DeLuca for Yahoo Travel.)
For a few months every year, rental car companies basically give away their vehicles to anyone willing to drive them one way from north to south along the East Coast, and from California to Arizona in the West. Because tourists want to visit warm places like Florida in the winter, the rental companies need their fleets full there, and as a result, cars can be hired in New York City and other cold places for around $9 a day as long as drivers agree to leave the car where it’s needed.
Combine this little-known deal with a few other money-saving tips that I tried during a recent road trip from New York down to the Florida Keys, and you’ll find what I did. Even budget-conscious types like a novelist and his food-writer girlfriend can live the dream, cruising along the highway in a sweet ride, sound system rippling with an “Indie Love Songs” station, destined for a South Carolina fried chicken dinner and points beyond.
The writer’s dog Shady and their $9-a-day rental car. (Photo: Allen Salkin)
The Car Rental Deal
Start at the website of Dollar and find the button for specials. As I write this, there are two relevant ones. The first is a $9-a-day-rate, running until February 2016, if you drive a car from any of four different Western states into Arizona. The second is “One Way Drive in Deals – Starting at $8.99 per day.” Click there and you’ll see rules stipulating that from late August until Dec. 31, you can rent a car in New York for $8.99 a day as long as you drop it off in either Florida, Georgia or South Carolina within 14 days. There are no mileage limits. Until Oct. 14, the same deal applied for rentals originating in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Expect this to return next year.
Related: 10 Dirty Secrets of Car Rental Companies
As is often the case these days, when Sara and I went to rent the car we’d reserved from a different rental company, an economy model, there were none on the lot. So we were upgraded for free to what they had, a burgundy-red VW four-door Passat, a solid car for long-distance drives.
Even with taxes and fees, a one-week, one-way rental with this deal comes in around $100. If you aren’t planning on moving to Key West for the winter – is that such a bad idea? – flights back north from a smaller airport like Fort Lauderdale can run as little as $69 one way.
The fried chicken at Leon’s Fine Poultry and Oysters was worth the long drive. (Photo: Allen Salkin)
A Priceline Secret
In Charleston, S.C., we stayed in a friend’s guest room, always an excellent budget choice, and dined at Leon’s Fine Poultry and Oysters. You’d be wise to do the same if grilled oysters and shatteringly crisp and flavorful fried chicken are your thing.
We were not in a big rush and wanted to use our spending money eating well, rather than on fancy hotels. From experience, we knew that some of the best deals can be found by accepting those Priceline hotel offers where they won’t reveal the exact name of the hotel in advance. Many seasoned travelers know about these “Express Deals,” but what you might not know is that in our experience, the deals get better the closer you book to your arrival.
Related: Savvy Rental Car Strategies: 8 Ways to Save Time, Money and Stress
Happy hour at the Brice in Savannah. (Photo: Allen Salkin)
In this case, we accepted a deal just seven days in advance for a well-rated hotel in downtown Savannah. It came in at $129 ($163 with taxes), roughly a 40 percent discount, and turned out to be the lovely Brice. A happy hour in the outdoor lounge, friendly dogs welcome, was included for free. When we checked deals for Savannah two weeks in advance, the offerings at the same price were for hotels with two fewer stars.
The super-budget drive through North Carolina featured some gorgeous forests. (Photo: Allen Salkin)
A Money-Saving Airbnb Tip
Mayfel’s Courtyard Bar in Asheville. (Photo: Allen Salkin)
For our accommodation in Asheville, N.C., we found a great-looking Airbnb rental near downtown. The host was asking $145 a night. I took a shot and in a message asked if he’d be willing to do $125, explaining that we would spend the money locally by eating at some fancy places like Chef Katie Button’s Curate. The host, who happens to be the co-owner of a popular coffee shop called Edna’s, accepted the offer. Curate, a fantastically authentic Spanish Tapas bar that nonetheless uses top-notch local ingredients, was delicious– as was the chef’s new American place around the corner, Nightbell.
A less satisfying way to spend money in Asheville is the much-touted and aggressively advertised Shoji Retreats. We found these private hot tubs perched on a mountainside in the forest and the massage rooms above to be not very comfortable, in sore need of updating, and at about $40 per person per hour for the tubs alone, ridiculously expensive. Protect your budget and give Shoji a miss.
Soaking up the trip in a hot tub in Florida (Photo: Allen Salkin)
Same Deal But Different in the Spring
In the spring, these car rental deals are reversed. In preparation for the summer tourist season, rental car companies offer major bargains if you’ll drive their cars one way out of Florida. In April and May 2015, for instance, Enterprise was offering full-sized rentals for $9.95 a day on cars “driven out of Florida locations and returned to any participating Enterprise locations in the Continental U.S. outside of the state of Florida.”
Something to think about if we ever do decide to start spending winters full-time in Key West.
Related: 10 Car Rental Hacks to Help You Score Upgrades and Cheap Rates
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